


Metagame

by drunkenpandaren



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Because Master Link 4 Is Over My Head, Gen, Old Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 08:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19373374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkenpandaren/pseuds/drunkenpandaren
Summary: Customer Service has been getting a lot of notices that Duel Monsters is just too complicated lately, and it's ending up on Yugi's desk.





	Metagame

“What’s on the agenda today?” asked Yugi, walking into the office. He was expecting something from research and development, something from balancing, but what he found was a pile of messages from Complaints. “Heather?’

Heather, the secretary on duty that day, poked her head out. “Yes Mr. Muto?”

“What’s all this? This should have been in the Customer Service Department,” said Yugi, taking one of the customer complaint forms and scanning it over. “Duel Monsters too complex?”

“They’re all forwarded to you, Mr. Muto,” replied Heather with a sigh. “They’re from someone, a certain someone, you might know. One Joey Wheeler?”

 

“Joey? What’s he doing complaining to me on our service line?” Yugi looked at the stack of complaints and sighed. “This is going to be one of those days, isn’t it?”

“You should get started,” replied Heather with a dry remark, before going back to her own work.

=====

Several hours later, Yugi emerged from paperwork hell with a more clear grasp of the situation. Joey, was in trouble. So, giving him a call and leaving a message he knew he would get, he excused himself from work and went downstairs. Taking the elevator, he got into his car and drove down to the old park where he waited.

Ten minutes. Fifteen. And soon, Joey showed up. He looked good, for someone who had been taken for everything in a duel. The man looked really bothered, calling his friend out of work as he waved at him. “Hey Yugi, sorry I had to call you out of work. I didn’t know who I could call.”

“You could have just called me,” replied Yugi. “Instead of flooding Customer Service with calls.”

“I tried, but they wouldn’t put me through,” replied Joey with a scowl. “Something about Mr. Muto doesn’t have time to talk to some random person.”

“Well, I’ll make sure to put your name on the call list,” replied Yugi as they pair sat down. “Back from Hokkaido I see. You look good.”

“Yeah, thanks Yugi. So uh, listen. I don’t know who else to turn to but I uh… lost my deck. In a duel. I was so badly beat, they couldn’t believe how easy it was because my deck was so outdated. So they gave it back.”

“I see.”

“And I know it’s weird but considering how badly I got beat, and how much the game has changed in the last few years, I kinda well…” Joey grimaced. “Yug, I hate to say it but I’m no good anymore! Everything your grandpa taught me is gone man! These Synchros, these XYZs, these Pendulums, these LINKS? What next? Dueling on Motorbikes? Ridin’ the monsters? Yug… I’m done. I can’t keep up.”

“Joey… I understand.” Said Yugi with a sad smile. “I haven’t dueled Kaiba in a long time to be honest. We keep developing systems for the game, but we haven’t really given it a real hard look at how complex the game has gotten. Chains and Timings… it’s really gotten different from the days when we were playing.”

“Remember when you attacked the Moon with Stone Soldier? You can’t do that sort of nonsense like that anymore.” said Joey.

“Or the time that Weevil kept a monster on the field for five turns and I couldn’t do anything until it hatched into the Great Moth? Yeah, these days it would be removed within seconds.” said Yugi. “The game’s changed, it’s us getting older.”

The two duelists sighed deeply.

“We’re getting old Yugi. But we shouldn’t let it beat us.” said Joey.

“No, we shouldn’t. But, the thing is, is getting old so bad?” said Yugi.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Joey.

“Look at us. We’re almost 40 now. It’s been years since Domino was rebuilt. Kaiba’s working out of the LA branch now but I stayed here in the Domino Branch to keep tabs on things. I kept out of the whole Synchro business and look what happened. Someone else dealt with the nonsense.” Yugi managed to smile. “The point is: the world doesn’t need us anymore Joey. We’re free to live our lives and move on, doing what we love. We don’t need to keep playing Duel Monsters forever. But we are free, to pick up the game once in a while and play a game like we used to do. The old fashioned way. Even if our deck is outdated once in a while by spades.”

A long silence followed as Joey exhaled. “You know right? You’re right about that. Thanks Yug. For everything.”

“You headed home?”

“Naw, I gotta catch up with Tristan while he’s in town. And then maybe take a boat ride to see Duke in Okinawa. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be up for some old school duel action. Revive the old Classic Format Circuit one of these days.” Joey grinned as he stood up. “Thanks for getting my head straight Yugi. it’s been an honor.”

“Yeah, any time.” The men shook hands as Joey headed off.

Yug got up as he headed back to the office, but before he did, he paused at an old display in a window of the Black Magician Girl, now officially named the Dark Magician Girl. For a moment, she animated and said, “You know Master, you should dust off my deck sometime, and built me that new archetype that came out.”

Yugi grinned. “Maybe I will. Tonight then. But first, I feel like getting some new sleeves.”

“Oh boo, you know I hate those, they’re so cramped!” Pouted the Dark Magician Girl.

Yugi laughed. And whistling an old tune, he entered the card store.

**Author's Note:**

> Published 6/26/2019
> 
> So I've been on a strange odd Yu-Gi-Oh Kick as of late, wanting to play the game and learn Master Link 4 and being completely overwhelmed by the new format and then it just sort of clicked into a sense of serenity. And then I wrote this fic.
> 
> Assuming that Dark Side of Dimensions spawned a new timeline, we're assuming that we're sitting during the end of 5Ds during this conversation and Kaiba Corp has been developing Links and XYZ Summons after that along with Pendulum Summoning. It's a madhouse in here.


End file.
